My Decision

I teach English as a Second Language to adults, and I recently decided that I wanted to learn another language. I've studied second language acquisition and learned a second language, but I wanted to experience it again as an adult so that I could better understand how my students feel in class and the challenges they face.

My L2 is a romance language, so I've decided to learn Arabic. Many of my students speak Arabic, and I wanted to learn a language that wasn't a romance language. I didn't want to be able to build on my L2. I wanted a whole new experience. I wanted to have to learn a whole new writing system or alphabet.  That's what many of my students have to do.

As teachers, my colleagues and I recognize our students' challenges, but often we aren't overly sympathetic and struggle to address their needs in terms of learning to read and write. 

I've told my students about my decision to learn Arabic, and I hope they respect my journey the way I respect theirs.  We are all learning that it isn't easy to learn an L2,  although the rewards are often worth the struggles.